“She’s the ball handler, she scores, she does whatever our team needs her to do at that time,” said Ryan Vetrie, the team’s head coach.

Bruni is Algoma U.’s top scorer, with 281 points this season, putting her seventh in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association for scoring. That gives her an average of 15.6 points a game, the eighth best in the league. If that’s not enough, she’s also leading the OCAA with 101 assists this season, and ranks second in steals with 71 to date. Last year, she was a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association All-Canadian.

“She’s just got a God-given talent, that girl,” said teammate Brianna Mandolesi of Bruni. “She just loves basketball and even just being on the team with her has made me such a better player.”

What drives Bruni?

“One thing that I had lost sight of in previous years and I always remind myself not to lose sight of ever again is that basketball is fun,” said Bruni, 21, a second-year guard with the Thunderbirds. “That’s why I’ve always played. I like to compete and I like to interact with teammates and other players.”

She’s about to take that attitude into her second straight provincial championship.

The Thunderbirds have one more day of practice this week before they get on a bus Wednesday morning for Humber College and this year’s OCAA championship tournament.

They go in having tied for first in their division with a record of 16-2, the same as Fanshawe though the Thunderbirds will be ranked below the Falcons at the OCAAs based on their regular-season record against second-place Humber.

First up for Algoma U. will be Seneca College, who finished with a 11-7 record in the regular season to place third in the Eastern Division behind Algonquin and St. Lawrence.

For Bruni, a psychology student who graduates in May, the tournament is important. It could be her last shot at competitive basketball glory.

“I am excited to give everything I have one last time and kind of carry on all the passion and all the effort (my former coaches) have put in over the years,” said Bruni.

Bruni is a big fan of the Sault Ste. Marie basketball community, having developed much of her skill here as a youth.

She played in the YMCA system and in her Grade 10 year she joined the senior team at St. Basil, and helped the school to a bronze medal at Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations.

After high school, Bruni went to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay to study kinesiology and played in the Ontario University Athletics league for two seasons.

She found the academic program wasn’t for her and moved back to the Sault two years ago to study at Algoma U.

As she heads to the OCAA’s again, she said it will be another chance to show what Algoma U. can do.

“It is nice to kind of remind people who do look past us because we’re a small school and we don’t have all the same things they have, that we can still compete and we still work hard and love it as much as anyone else does,” said Bruni.